The Senate Wednesday afternoon returned to the House the budget that chamber passed less than a day earlier, but increasing higher education funding by 2.5 percent and lowering the overall spend number to $31.53 billion.
Only three Senators—Sen. Scott Wagner (R-York), Sen. John Eichelberger (R-Blair), and Sen. Scott Hutchinson (R-Venango)—opposed the spending plan.
The spending plan voted on by the Senate Wednesday found its $40 million increase to be shared by Pennsylvania’s state-related schools and other institutions of higher education by shifting money from lines said not to be priorities to the House or the governor and was able to obtain its bipartisan support by increasing funding in areas like the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.